Matthew 14:22-33

30

Since it was the day before Thanksgiving, there was no preschool. The day started with Philip letting me sleep in while he took Harry to our favorite donut spot, Conroy’s Bakery Shoppe. Philip woke me up with a sweet kiss on the forehead. “Honey, Harry and I got some donuts! Want to come downstairs and have breakfast together?” Who doesn’t love starting their day with a cuppa coffee and a Conroy’s apple fritter??? Nom, nom, nom.

My loves after breakfast

After that, Philip went to work, and the kids and I enjoyed a quiet day around the house. We played, we did a little housework, and I got to enjoy listening to the newly released podcasts of the Jennifer Fulwiler Show while I folded laundry. I might have over-indulged and listened to all of the available episodes at once. Can’t wait to hear more! No preschool drop-off or pick-up meant we could have a lazy morning together. After lunch, the kids gifted me with a glooooooooooorious nap! I snapped this pic of Harry after I laid him down in his crib. My cup runneth over!

Nighty night, Harry

Walt slept in his bed, and Miss Jane snuggled up with me and Monty in my room. We laid down at 2:15, and we woke up right as Philip was calling us on his way home from work at 5. What a nap!

After dinner, Philip surprised me with a cookie cake for dessert. “Jane and Walt helped me decide what to put on it.”

My personalized cookie cake

All of my favorite things! A princess tiara, a magic wand, a race car. I couldn’t have designed it better myself, kiddos! I had some help blowing out the candles.

Harry thought his fingers would get the job done

I love Walt’s face in this one

Everyone enjoyed their cookie cake!

As if the day could get any better, Philip and the kids outdid themselves with their presents this year. Remember what I told you I wanted? I GOT IT!!! Philip got me a gift certificate to a cleaning company so that I can get the bathrooms and kitchen cleaned on a regular basis. YAY!!! That way, I can enjoy my gig at home without the nagging need to scrub the toilets. Philip also got me a gift certificate to a local spa. I jokingly said I want to return the spa certificate to get more services from the cleaning company, but…doesn’t that sound brilliant?! I’m seriously considering it. I’ll take a sparkling clean bathroom over a pedicure any day. Call me crazy, but I like what I like!

After bedtime prayers and stories, we put the kids to bed, and Philip and I had a little at-home date night. We opened some bubbly pink moscato and watched The Family Man with Nicolas Cage and Téa Leoni. I like the Rotten Tomatoes plot summary:

Wall Street playboy, Jack Campbell is at the top of his professional game with little time for anything else. Jack’s lavish, fast-paced lifestyle drastically changes one snowy Christmas night when he unwittingly stumbles into the middle of a grocery store holdup and in a bold display of self-preservation disarms the gunman. The next morning he wakes up in a suburban New Jersey bedroom lying next to Kate, his college sweetheart who he left in order to pursue his career, and to the horrifying discovery that his former life no longer exists. As he stumbles through this alternate suburban universe, Jack begins to feel strangely comfortable in this new role of loving husband and father to two children. Jack finds himself at a crossroad, where he must choose between his high-powered career and the woman he loves.

Sure, the critics might say The Family Man is nothing more than a sentimental modern-day It’s A Wonderful Life, but that’s precisely why I love it. We bought the movie a few years ago, and we watch it every year before Christmas. I chose to watch that movie on the night of my 30th birthday because it’s exactly how I feel about life these days. Just like the main characters, Philip and I chose to get our family out of the fast lane of trying to keep up with the Joneses. These days, we’re enjoying our very quiet, very normal, and very ordinary lives in suburban Nebraska. Quiet, normal, and ordinary = exactly where I want to be.

When I read Happier at Homeby Gretchen Rubin, I loved her many Secrets of Adulthood. One of them in particular continues to ring true: What’s fun for other people may not be fun for you–and vice versa. Philip and I are happiest when we embrace the things we really enjoy doing together and actually do them instead of what the world tells us we’d enjoy. At 30, one of my favorite parts of marriage is finding these interests and figuring out ways to enjoy them together. Some people might look at how I celebrated my 30th birthday and think, “Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaame!” I say, “It’s my birthday, and I’ll be lame if I want to!”

30 is already shaping up to be a fabulous year in my lame book. Six months after moving to Lincoln, I think we’ve arrived at our new normal.

I’m learning how to take my gig at home less seriously and slow myself down long enough each day to enjoy motherhood. Let me tell ya, life’s better for everyone these days! With fewer commitments, more play dates, more date nights, and more “holy leisure,’ it’s easier to find the graces to thrive through the week.

I FINALLY took a sewing lesson, and I’m starting my first sewing project this week.